Reboot Alberta

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Honesty in Politics: Oxymoron or Obligation?

Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch has published a very important article on honesty in politics entitled "Is the 'High Road' Closed to Politicians?"  

Here is his closing statement:

"It is no wonder that the No. 1 reason non-voters give for failing to cast a ballot is lack of honesty in politics, or that dishonesty is voters’ top concern when it comes to government accountability.
Politicians need to be held accountable for their honesty just as the rest of Canada’s citizens are every day. It’s time for our political leaders to prove their worth by passing a strong honesty-in-politics law, giving voters a reason to trust them again."
Albertans have told us in research done under Reboot Alberta that Integrity, Honesty, Accountability and Transparency are the most vital values we want in our politicians.  We also know we are not getting the necessary commitment to those values under the current political culture.
The all to common responses of citizens to this democratic deficit has been to withdraw from politics and forfeit our responsibilities of making an informed and active choice about who we want to govern us.  In Alberta this is especially true when 60% of us can't even be bothered to cast a ballot to state our preference for how we should be governed and by whom.
The Edmonton Sun has run a very insightful Editorial today on the impact and danger of ideology over evidence and dogma over ideas.  It really sets out the changing dynamics in Alberta politics in a way I see and hopeful for  real change to happen.
Trust in democracy, our politics and our political culture is not a given any more.  People just don't trust our institutions any more - because most of them have done so much to betray our trust.  Trust is a judgment call that measures the reliability of someone to act and perform as expected and will not fail us, let us down or mislead us.
The political culture of spin and messaging is all about deception dynamics that create distrust as a result.  We need to insist on integrity, honesty, accountability and transparency from our politicians, the political parties, the institutions we rely on to make our society function like the media.  We also have to rise up to the responsibility of citizenship and not be intimidated by fear or coercion of authorities that use bullying and intimidation to compel compliance. 
We need to actualize the spirit of Reboot Alberta and as citizens take back Control of our democracy by informed active participation in politics.  We need to create viable political Alternatives to the one-party state we have let dominate our democracy in Alberta.  We need to Delete the power of those in politics for personal power broker reasons and not in the spirit of servant leaders.
We need new faces, and a fresh start and a return to moderate progressive policies that are based on integrity, honesty, accountability.  We need an alternative like the Alberta Party to shape up and shake up the system that has long since stopped serving the greater good.






9 comments:

  1. The problem is that Canadians are suffering from a form of Stockholm Syndrome. Information that belongs to us is being held captive, and too many people are siding with the captors. There is thus no threat of punishment for liars and corrupt governments, they simply grow more powerful as more people sympathize with the liars and hiders.

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  2. All of your comments, I would say, are applicable to most provinces and certainly to all federal parties. I sometimes think that the reason we are so complacent, unlike the brave citizens in the Middle East who are risking their lives for a principle they think sacred, democracy, is that we have enough 'baubles' to keep us distracted and indifferent to the issues that really should matter, such as integrity of public office holders.

    That being said, we also know that most people don't want to be confronted with the fact that Canadian programs and values cannot be protected without a personal cost, i.e., taxes. They seem to prefer to listen to the mindless rhetoric of the right-wing, be it Rob Ford in Toronto or Tim Hudak in Ontario who like to talk about 'stopping the gravy train' and finding 'new efficiencies, tired and empty phrases left over from the Mike Harris era here,

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  3. Anonymous7:13 pm

    Ken, you're bang on...now in addition to honesty, accountability and integrity, governments must also realize that the electorate is not a bunch of mindless sheep. Transparency is critical in order to understand what the government is doing and more importantly, why. The recent controversy over the government's refusal to release an expert report on whether woodland cariboo should be designated as endangered is a prime example. Yes, the ultimate decision to not to designate the species as endangered rests with the goverment, but no, this doesn't mean that they can refuse to release the report or be accountable for their decision. That's called transparency. Without transparency there is no trust.

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  4. "information that belongs to us is being held captive, and too many people are siding with the captors."

    Wow. I like that!

    Be forewarned... I'm gonna use it!

    Thanks

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  5. Carlos Beca8:19 pm

    Amazing that we define ourselves a democracy since 1867 and in 2011 we are still debating honesty in politics! Not difficult to realize what kind of democracy we have. The question of honesty should be a matter of fact and if our politicians do not understand it, they should be fired and in some cases put in prison just like the rest of us. Debating this is a just a sign of how much we are willing to accept dishonesty in our lives. This also tells a lot about us. Of course we do not walk on the streets for this amazing abuse of power politicians display daily but that is only because we really convinced ourselves that we are a great democracy. It is easy to accept mediocrity when we ourselves have lower standards of honesty and democracy. Due to our economic system we are willing to accept lower political standards to accommodate what the system needs to thrive.

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  6. Anonymous9:50 pm

    LoL. You naive progressives actually believe in politicians?

    Geez, grow up and get a life!

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  7. Carlos Beca9:23 am

    These Anonymous cowards cannot even have a respectful discussion with us naive progressives. You are the one who has to grow up you idiot.

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  8. Anonymous2:14 pm

    Ken, we have gotten fat and complacent and learned since the Klein years to accept the lowered bar of mediocrity from our leaders. We have become conditioned to believe that if we seek transparency, truth and justice, that we are socialists or LW nuts. We have gotten used to not questioning, we have gotten used to not having open discussions and attrition of intelligence and solution finding. Stelmach's crew is a prime example of non-transparency, dishonesty, inaccountability and plain old ineptness.

    Politics is all about money. There are little if any that actually run to make a true differnce for the betterment of mankind and society, those ones usually get punted or tossed and blackballed, because it is not normal here to be honest and have a sincere desire to table real solutions to our problems.

    99% of politicians are political deadwood, opportunists, users, liars, puffballers and just want to be around long enough to get that coveted pension on the backs of Joe Taxpayer.

    The real opportunistic politicians are the quiet ones, the ones in the back that never speak out for society, because they are always willing to go along to keep their salary and potential of promotions. These apathetic ones are the true murderers of our society and democracy.

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  9. Carlos Beca6:06 am

    Well I guess the Anonymous decided to say something after all. I agree with what you say and I believe most Canadians do but I just have some bad news for you - The apathetic true murderers of our society and democracy, the ones that sit at the back and allow this to happen are all of us. We chose to let them run the show and the results are obvious. By the way the Klein years were as bad or worse except that he was showered with money and played the Santa Klaus card. It is easy to pretend to govern when the cheque book is fat.

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